Finally, an Intel

[LCGuy]

Actually, if you buy an MCE OptiBay, it hooks up to the ATAPI connector and has the circuitry required to convert between ATAPI and SATA. However given that you're still using ATA (ATA/100 from memory), its still going to be a lot slower than it would be if you could connect it directly through SATA.

 

[Byrd]

Nice score B, and amazing to hear a Crack Converters actually had something Mac-related ... and well priced! You should be able to upgrade it quite cheaply and nicely. The only Apple thing I ever purchased from a CC is a Newton 110 (that someone painted black, and badly - but the price was good) a good 15 years ago at a store in Mulgrave or something like that.

I don't think think I'm part of the Intel club ... well, officially, I still use my desktop Hackintosh quite happily. Did get a Mac Mini from my wife's school for $100, now a Plex media box - but that's it

JB

 

[Bunsen]

Hopefully it's a late 2006 Core 2 Duo

It is. The link in the OP is to the exact model.

but a quick SMC rest

Rest or reset? How does one do that?

The matte screen is easier on the eyes + the keyboard is great to type on

I quite agree There's a little bit of darkening at the left and right edges until the CCFLs warm up. If they go, I might do a LED mod, but so far they seem fine.

the X60. If it has a C2D cpu

It did - but like I said, I'd rather max this machine out than buy another.

A Mac / at Crap Converters / at a reasonable price / I didn't even think such a thing was possible!

I know what you mean Most of the time all you can find in there is a crappy G3 iMac for $xxx

just watch out for the dreaded X1600 GPU failure

Hmm, I wasn't aware of that. Ah well, fingers crossed.

Keep yours cool

That's the plan

LCGuy, coius, thanks for the tips about the ATAPI optical. Would a straight PATA drive work hanging off it? Speed isn't that much of a concern; this would be a second drive, not the boot volume.

Does anyone know if a drive connected via the ExpressCard slot is bootable on this specific model? (A1211) I've looked at EC SSDs and USB3 cards, but someone on IRC mentioned the slot may not be boot-friendly.

the chipset in them supports at minimum 4 SATA devices, but you will need to find pads to do it.

Interrrresting....

 

[jongleur]

but a quick SMC rest

Rest or reset? How does one do that?

Blast you iPhone! I meant to type "reset" not "rest"

As to how, power down, pop out battery, press and hold power switch for 5 seconds, release, load battery, power up, and do stuff.

 

[insaneboy]

Actually, if you buy an MCE OptiBay, it hooks up to the ATAPI connector and has the circuitry required to convert between ATAPI and SATA. However given that you're still using ATA (ATA/100 from memory), its still going to be a lot slower than it would be if you could connect it directly through SATA.

Yeah VERY slow. have one of those MCE OptiBays in the laptop right next to me

 

[Bunsen]

Right then, ExpressCard it is. A little more pricey per gig, but it saves me having to buy an Optibay, and dismantle the thing, and I get to keep the internal optical drive.

 

[sirwiggum]

A good find!

The Cash Converters here usually has no such bargains.

Any macs they do get are overpriced and snapped up by wannabe 'club DJs' (ie. beat matching software on an mp3 player...).

Or Pentium 4s for several hundred quid.

I usually just nip in to see what N64/Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox (360 compatible)/Gamecube games they have. Most of the time they're Fifa (a football / 'soccer' game that gets updated every year with the latest transfers and kit sponsors and is usually available in most game resellers for 99p the year after). Or some overpriced model vans (mostly Lledo Model Ts that are in an incorrect modern livery for the vintage).

 

[Bunsen]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Mostly I just nip in there to see what kind of oddball music gear they might have on the shelves. The previous best score from them was probably my Psion.

 

[Bunsen]

Argh.

This doesn't work On MBPs that are the 1,1 or 2,1 model. You can use ExpressCard SSDs in those models, but you can't boot off of them. Apple must have added booting from the ExpressCard slot with either 3,1 or 4,1

Plan B it is then.

 

[jongleur]

I thought my MBP was 2,1 so I'd check for you, but it is a 2,2 (C2D-2.23) and it can boot off a SDHC using the card reader in the ExpressCard Slot

 

[Bunsen]

Battery has arrived, and after a PM reset and a couple of calibration runs, I'm getting between 2 and 3 hours. Not bad for $30 I may try and trickle charge the dead one off my lab supply - at very low and controlled current - to see if I can get any charge into it and have the 'book recognise it.

Possible future upgrades:

• ~$90 Seagate Momentus XT 500GB hybrid SATA HD
  or
  
• $130 OWC 120GB SSD
  + move existing HD to
  
• ~$15 SATA-IDE adapter and optical bay mount
  or
  
• hacked FW800-SATA internal, and generic optical bay mount.

NB: In googling, I'm picking up hints that people are having trouble with the Momentus XTs as internal boot drives in Macbooks/MBPs.

: Booting SSD vs hybrid vs HD
Then, there's the real mad-science upgrades .... }

 

[Bunsen]

Update:

Still going strong. I've decided against the crazy mad-science upgrades, and ordered the cheap PATA-SATA bridge/optical bay adapter; next up a SATA SSD for the main bay, and a couple of TB in a NAS of some kind.

I decided against the Momentus; the SSD, apart from being faster, should also give me a battery life boost.

Also going to upgrade to SL.